On With the Snow (Chapter 1)

[Nia M]

On With the Snow

Set after 5.4 (but 5.5 didn’t happen) and in January. Flashbacks relevant to the plot also feature heavily.
Fluffy Ruth/Harry in the early stages of a relationship, with possible hints of Zaf/Jo.
No real spoilers as such, but you might recognise one particular line from S8. Title is from the song by ‘The Get-Up Kids’.

Chapter 1

“Of all the days we could have drawn, it had to be the day it snowed didn’t it.” Shaking snow out of his hair, Adam threw his coat onto the back of his chair and sat down, decidedly unimpressed. Ruth watched him in amusement over the monitor of her computer.

“Good morning to you too,” she said. Adam glowered at her in response. Clearly someone had got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, and was in no mood now other than a complaining one. Ruth decided to apply reason. “Well it was us or Section F, and we did lose the coin toss.”

“I still think they cheated,” he muttered darkly. She rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, but proceeded nonetheless to reply.

“It may come as a surprise to you, Adam, that not everyone outside of Section D is morally incapacitated.”

Adam’s head jolted up, quick to challenge. “Find me one person who isn’t, and then I’ll believe you.”

Ruth’s words had had the desired effect, and in his eagerness to win the argument, Adam had completely forgotten about his complaining. “There’s Wes, for starters,” she countered. A scoff in reply told her that perhaps he was not quite the right person to choose.

“You haven’t seen his poker face...”

“You’ve taught your nine year-old son to play poker?” she asked incredulously.

“With chips and money too,” came Zaf’s stage whisper.

“That was your idea, not mine,” Adam defended. “I blame you for introducing my son to gambling.”

“You’re just sore because he thrashed you.”

“He didn’t thrash me!” Adam replied indignantly. “It was beginner’s luck!”

“And the seven times after that?” prodded Zaf.

“Utter fluke.” Quick to change the subject, he continued, “But I defy you to find a single person even in here who is wholly honest. And don’t even think about self-nominating.” His puffed-up expression deflated when Zaf indicated Ruth. “Ah,” he said. “Good point.”

Unsure whether to be pleased or insulted, Ruth opted for neither. “Me?” she asked curiously. “Why me?”

“Ruth...” began Jo. “You have to be the most moral person ever to walk the floors of a government building. It’s not a bad thing,” she insisted, “but it shouldn’t be a surprise that Zaf picked you out as honest.”

All eyes were now on Ruth and, while inwardly pleased with the compliment, her stomach turned at all the attention. Seeing this, Adam waltzed in to her rescue.

“Anyway, can’t I just say I have to go to talk to Wes’ teachers or something today and get off work?” he asked. Zaf shook his head in dismissal.

“You’ve already pulled that excuse for Valentine’s Day, mate.”

“Why can’t I use it again?”

“Valentine’s Day?” inquired Jo. “Who’s the unlucky girl?” She dodged a pencil thrown at her by Adam. “Oi!”

“Serves you right,” he grumbled.

Ros chose that moment to enter the conversation. “While we’re here, so are you,” she declared, before heading into the forgery suite. Jo eyed her retreating figure, envious of how the older blonde seemed to be completely unperturbed by the copious snowfall. Unlike Jo, she didn’t have a single hair on her head out of its immaculate place, and her boots didn’t have a speck of snow on them, let alone be completely water-logged now that said snow had melted. Had Ros been anyone else, Jo would have asked her how she had managed it, but in this situation she thought better of asking the proverbial ice queen for tips.

Adam too eyed her turned head. “Sadist,” he muttered.

“That’s the influence of MI6 for you,” Zaf replied. Jo gave a short, disbelieving laugh and faced him again.

“What are you on about?” she asked. “You used to work there!”

“But I managed to escape before I was converted to the dark side,” he countered. “Imagine if I had left it a week later...” He shuddered dramatically for effect, causing Jo to shake her head in despair.

“Who gave him caffeine?” she asked, looking in good humour at Ruth for answers.

“I blame the snow,” was the reply. “It turns everyone, even MI5 intelligence officers, into complete children...”

“Well they’d better stop when Harry gets here. Somehow I can’t see him treating it all so lightly.” Jo looked towards his office. It was currently empty. “Where is he anyway?”

“Stuck in a meeting with Juliet.”

“Already?” Jo’s surprise was evident. “It’s only nine o’clock!” Ruth shrugged in response. “He’s almost as bad as you are!”

“I’m not that bad-” Ruth began to defend her ridiculous start-time, but was interrupted by Adam.

“Ha! I said you that you wouldn’t be able to find an honest person in here! And I was right, because that was a lie.” He dragged out the last syllable, playfully emphasising his point.

Ruth tried again to protest. “No it wa-”

“As was that,” came Adam’s next interruption.

“You didn’t know what I was going to say,” she insisted defensively. He inclined his head to one side in admission.

“I took an educated guess. But I was right – you’re worse than Harry when it comes to time spent on the Grid!” As with Jo, the mention of Harry’s name drew his eyes to the maroon office. “And speaking of our lord and master, where did you say he is?”

Though she wasn’t entirely sure Harry would appreciate the mocking jest, she had to admit that the title suited him. Lord Harry Pearce did have rather a nice ring to it, even if it was unlikely that an officer of the security services would be granted a peerage. A knighthood was scarce enough for someone of their profession. Sir Harry Pearce...

“With Juliet,” she replied. “He should be back soon; the meeting is only scheduled for half an hour.”

Inwardly, Adam was chuckling at Ruth’s unrivalled knowledge of Harry’s diary; it wasn’t part of her job description of all the ins and outs of Harry’s appointments, yet she had always (to Adam’s knowledge) kept tabs on him. He wondered if Ruth had noticed that Harry had since been attempting to do the same for her. Zaf certainly had figured out that Harry’s general inquiries into his officers’ social lives were nothing more than a front for his real interest in Ruth’s life, and had adjusted the odds on his books accordingly.

Leaving the other three to continue their good-natured quarrel on honesty, Ruth now turned her thoughts once more back to Harry. It was unsurprising that when they wanted to know something about Harry they would turn to her for answers. She was after all the expert on anything to do with any of the members of Section D; it was always she who would be approached for advice or a helping hand, lending her gentle temperament and kind words to whoever was in need of them. Although she couldn’t deny that her many conversations with Harry did not quite fall into the same category.

And recently she had become even more familiar with his schedule, as she was rapidly becoming a regular part of it...

***

“I was wrong,” she had declared, after having burst into Harry’s office, unexpectedly, and without knocking. Harry had looked up from a file, genuinely surprised to see her there. Since the awkward conversation that had followed their one and only dinner date she had stopped tearing in unannounced, and would instead stop and knock before entering.

It was a shame, Harry had mused; he had rather enjoyed her unintentionally flamboyant entrances, armed with some vital intelligence or revelation, and a priceless look of proud, flustered triumph on her face. He had missed that, and also their hesitant conversations when he asked her to stay behind, both knowing what the intended to articulate, but both flailing spectacularly as they fell short of doing so. He really had missed this.

“Wrong?” he asked. “Wrong about what?” He stood and gestured for her to take a seat, but she shook it aside, determined as she was to force out her thoughts.

“About us,” she replied, then shook her head firmly in immediate dismay of what she had said. “N-no... not about us,” she corrected, gesturing vaguely with her hands, “but about the talking... about us.”

Harry stepped closer to her, frowning in confusion. “I’m not sure I follow,” he said warily.

“When I said I can’t stand having people talking about me... I wasn’t wrong about that...” Oh god, she was saying this completely wrong. “but... but it’s not as bad as them not talking about me.”

Still with very little clue as to what she was on about, Harry hesitantly put one land out to lightly rest on her shoulder. Once more he was grateful for the drawn blinds and now shut door that separated the two of them from the rest of the Grid. She kept her eyes firmly on the ground, very much aware of the detrimental effect his close proximity was having on her heart rate, all the while trying to stay firmly focused on her purpose here.

“Ruth, what is this about?” he asked, trying to glean a further clue from her. For an intelligence officer, he really was being rather dim.

“They knew about our dinner, Harry,” she began, “and... and they know something bad happened then, because they’ve stopped talking about us.”

He noticed how her lowered eyelids fluttered every time she said ‘us’, as though the word pained her. “And that’s worse?” he asked cautiously.

Frustration overcame her. Finally, she looked up and met his gaze. “Yes it’s worse! You don’t have to put up with it in here, but out there I get their pity.”

Thrown by her outburst, Harry was initially lost for words. Before he could say anything, Ruth rushed to apologise, mortified. “God – Harry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-” She turned to leave, but Harry’s hand on her shoulder held her in place.

“Yes you should,” he murmured. He would not leave her to face the wolves alone again.

***

How long they remained like that neither knew, but he eventually noticed that despite her outburst, she was still fidgeting like she did when she wanted to talk.

“Ruth,” he prompted gently. “Was there something else you wanted to say?”

She looked at him in horror, completely misunderstanding his words and believing herself to be an imposition.

“Sorry-”

Before he could react, she was out of his reach and out of the door, closing it behind her. He exhaled deeply and let his arm drop to his side. Why couldn’t he have been more careful in what he said?! He returned to his desk chair and sat down, internally berating himself. Just when-

“Harry...”

He was surprised to see Ruth back again, lingering this time in the doorway and looking him directly in the eyes. He was even more surprised by her next sentence.

“Do you want to get a drink?”

He stared at her for a moment in shock, before quickly replying.

“Yes, Ruth. I think I do.”

Chapter 2

[YourFutureMuse]

Yay very topical
I love the idea of ickle Wes gambling bless him And I liked the way you have Jo looking up to Ros. And the office banter was really believable
Yay I love snow

[TygerBright]

that was soooo funny, and so in character. and down to the tiny details like fluttering eylids
Adam getting beaten in poker by his son.. repeatedly - the thought is priceless

liking it very much, Kenneth

[Nia M]

Hadn't really thought about the timing of posting it here, but now that I look outside and it's snowing, it's pretty topical indeed

TygerBright

Thanks to you both for commenting!

[TygerBright]

I actually hesitated a moment before reading it - just because of the title..
it's been snowing here for ***ing ever, and I'm getting sick of it
and your encouraging the snow put a frown on my face for a moment.. only to have it turned upside down by the warmth of the story

can we now have a summer story please?!? or at least spring?

[YourFutureMuse]

No no no snow snow snow In case you haven't noticed I get a little bit over excited when it snows

Just like it says in the fic aha makes children of everyone

[Nia M]

It does indeed The day when it started snowing majorly in January, my normally very strict and never-smiling Classics teacher launched herself into a very very excited declaration about how brilliant snow is, and how if it weren't so cold she's want us to go and have the lesson outside!

No summer stories or spring stories (or any other stories!) until I've finished this one

[TygerBright]

(10-02-2010 07:11 PM)YourFutureMuse Wrote:  In case you haven't noticed I get a little bit over excited when it snows

ROFL - you get a bit over excited when <insert clause of choice here> ...never mind, it always cheers me up.. awh, the enthusiasm of youth

Don't get me wrong - I love winter and snow, can't actually stand anything over 27°) but it's been enough already!!! Up north in my hometown it's different but in the big city it quickly turns into grey, dirty, ugly, wet slush and ice.. and just when you thought it was melting away - it starts all over again. And rumour has is this is going to go on till April.

arrrgh..

[Nia M]

So long as it's warmish for the 28th April-2nd March (when I have D of E gold) I don't mind

[lwhite53]

Yes, finish this one please -- it's off to a great start!